The Lion's Den
by shesellsseashells33
Summary: In the time before Dragons, when they were only childrens' stories, a small group of travelers changed the world for the first time. Krynn is in terrible danger. A terrible danger has stirred from the ground, and three gems must be obtained to maintain the balance of life, and seal the evil back into its cage. The task is given to an odd arrangement of friends.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **This story, though it does involve characters from the DragonLance chronicles, is meant to stand on its own. The only thing that I have borrowed are the setting and the characters from DL. Hope you like it!

**CHAPTER 1**

It is always the first snow, as it falls, that is the most beautiful. It holds no clue and no hint to the chill and misery that is to come.

It was now that Seline stood at the window of the dark and dusty, old Snake's Eye Inn. She stood staring with her deep amber almond shaped eyes out toward the children who were frolicking in the softly falling first snow that already covered the ground in a thin layer that stuck to their boots, and revealed the brown, dead plant life below it. The window was cracked, letting a soft, chilly breeze into the pub. A pipe was wedged between the half-elf's teeth, and, as she tassled her dark red hair, she blew out a lungful of smoke into the air, only to have it float its way back into the dark room.

When the door opened and closed softly, Seline only glanced behind her at the cloaked figure coming through the door. Behind him was a large warrior, whose face was also obscured by a hood. "Sit anywhere." she called, and watched as they chose a table in the back. Seline pushed her pipe into the opening of the window balancing it carefully on the sill, before turning around to approach the strangers. One of the cloaked figures was standing behind her, and when she turned around (with a skip of heart and jump of body at being surprised) she recognized the face immediately.

"Raistlin!" she exclaimed in surprise.

The man that stood before her was tall in stature, and wise in eye. He wore a long, blood-red cloak that fell to the floor, and a spellbook was tucked under his arm, where it was always kept. Instinctively, Seline threw her arms around the man, and he responded with a little snarl, but a fond pat of the back. "Seline," he said in his quiet voice as she took a step back. "Even after a year you still wait here."

"Where else was I going to go?" Seline asked, a slight tone of chill creeping into her voice. She was still happy to see him, though, and remained cheerful. "He, I assume, is Caramon?" she directed her gaze to the large man sitting by the fire. His body shook a few times with a cough, and Seline's eyes wrinkled in concern. "Is he all right?"

"An infected wound." Raistlin said casually. "We ran into some trouble on the way in."

Seline, immediately worried, turned her body and strode over to the big warrior. She set her hand on his shoulder, before he noticed that she was there. With a friendly cry of, "Seline!" he stood up on his feet and wrapped his huge arms around her, lifting her up into the air. Seline was momentarily out of breath, and patted him as much as she could given her position.

"Caramon," she choked out, "I can't breathe."

"Sorry!"

The big man put her down, and Seline smiled fondly up at the man. Raistlin, his twin brother, came to stand beside him. "Sit down." he said coolly, "exerting yourself isn't going to make that wound any better." His amber eyes , much like her own, made their way to Seline. "Tanis and the others are on their way." he said softly, and Seline's heart skipped again.

"I'll go get some ale," she said, smiling wide, and disappeared into the back room. When she came back out, with mugs aplenty full of ale, she saw that the brothers had been joined. She set down the mugs, her face half hidden, and waited until the first person noticed her.

Of course it was her brother that did first. With a soft cry and a leap to his feet, Tanis jumped up onto his feet and wrapped his arms around her. His smooth face pressed against her forehead, and she returned his hug without a word. Nothing either of them could say would change anything, though they had a thousand words for each other. Seline's old anger that she had kept quiet for almost a year bubbled to the surface again, but she kept her hold firm on her brother before letting him go and turning to the others.

The rest rose to greet her. Kitiara smiled widely, and gave her a violent hug, and a small shake. The woman was as beautiful as her father had been handsome, and had inherited many of the warrior's qualities. Older half sister to Raistlin and Caramon, she was fiery, loud mouthed, and had taught Seline every human swear word she knew. Seline returned her embrace with just as much vigor.

Then next to embrace her was Flint, the dwarf. Seline crouched low to wrap her arms around his shoulders warmly. Flint's eyes were soft as he looked upon her, and his beard tickled her shoulder. "Good to see you, lass." he said quietly, and gave a significant look to Tanis, who was standing by the fire, guilt streaking his face. Seline did not have much time to reply, however, before little Tasslehoff Burrfoot leapt up into her arms, and hugged her tightly.

"Seline!" he cried, hugging her tightly. The kender was loud, and his voice shrill. Seline's ear rung a bit at the high frequency before she hugged the little kender back. Much like a child, though almost as old as Raistlin, he grabbed onto her. As she set him down, Seline checked the clasp of her necklace, and the little pouch hung to her long skirt. Though trustworthy and loyal, kender-folk had a tendency to have sticky fingers, though with complete honesty they would all swear that things just fell into their hands.

Finally, came Sturm, the knight of Solamnia. He pried Tas off of her, and gave her a wordless kiss on the cheek, as well as a warm embrace that covered her with his musky scent. His whiskers quivered with pleasure, and he hugged her tightly. "Welcome back," Seline whispered quietly, and returned his kiss on the cheek before finally letting go of him.

Seline turned her head to the group, who was standing by the fire and sipping their ale. Each of them was full to the brim with questions and stories, and Seline yearned to hear all of them. But there was someone missing. Seline glanced around the bar, as if waiting for the person to come forward and greet her by surprise.

"Wheres Kauthan?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. The company awkwardly looked at each other, before all eyes turned back to her. It was Tanis who spoke.

"He's dead."

**Thanks for reading! The next one will be longer! Promise!.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thanks for hanging in there with me these past few months while I've been at school. Second year of college started of with a bang- kicking my ass from day one. Let me know what you think! I don't know how I'm doing if you don't rate and review! **

Seline watched, crippled with grief, from the bar, toward the end of the table that the companions all occupied, sipping their ale as they told the stories of their adventures after they had left Seline behind.

"You've got to get over it, you know." Kitiara said as she leaned her thin body against the door frame. She ruffled her short cropped black hair and lifted one thin eyebrow. "He died a long time ago."

"And how were you," Seline shot back, filling a mug to the brim with the steaming brown liquid, "in the days after his death? How many times did you cry? Excuse me for shedding tears at someone's death. Someone I have been waiting for for a year after you all left me!"

"You told us to go!" Kitiara replied hotly. "You're the one who said that we should leave. You're the one who-"

"I know." Seline cut her off, and sat down heavily on the stool behind the bar, burying her face in her hands. And it was she who had told them to leave, even if it meant leaving her behind.

"Seline," she had not even heard Tanis as he had come into the bar, and she watched as Tanis walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her again. "I'm so sorry about him. He died the death he would have wanted."

"I don't have time to talk about it, Tanis," Selina replied shortly, and picked up a warm, wet towel, and brought it back out to the table, along with a small bowl of herbs, and sat down between Caramon and Raistlin.

"So," Seline said, looking up with a glint in her eyes, hiding her tear stained cheeks, "What trouble have the lot of you been up to these past months?" She delicately peeled Caramon's shirt sleeve back and grimaced at the scene of the red, inflamed skin. She dipped the rag into the bowl of water and herbs, and gently laid it on the warrior's arm. He hissed, and made to withdraw his arm back, but she held his hand firmly. She began to gently clean his wounds as she listened to their story, which, of course, Tasslehoff insisted on telling.

"It wasn't much fun without you, Seline," he started in his high, squeaky voice, speaking quickly, "but it was very exciting. Of course, we kender think that everything is fun, but you would have made it better-"

"Will you stop your rambling, and actually tell the story?" Flint asked, yanking on the kender's topknot.

Tas gave a little hurt glance, as the others delved into their meal, but continued with no less vigor than he had been before. "We left here because that wizard was looking for you, Seline, and hoped to bring them away. You remember." Seline nodded, "Well he's still looking for us. He's been tearing up half of Krynn trying to find us, but we've done well hiding from him. We've been travelling North, and now back South toward here, because we believe he's died, at least, that's what a witch told us but we can't be sure because we did not see his body for ourselves." Tas took a breath, "But we still don't know where he is. We've missed you so much we decided we had to come back and get you, no matter the danger. We thought that you would understand. And then Kauthan dying. I must tell you about that, Seline. It was very valiant. We were being herded by trolls, and they were putting us into these huge cages. They were going to cook us and eat us and then we would have never ended up back here to find you. But he saved us, and forced us to run without him. He saved us though. Oh and Seline! I have something for you!" Tas began rummaging through his pouches before he distracted himself, "And oh! Seline! I saw a wooly mammoth on our way here! It was amazing. It was huge and wooly-"

"And a mammoth, we get it." Flint growled, and tapped on the kender's bowl with his spoon. "Now you shut up and eat before you burst my brain." Seline and the rest of the company chuckled, and went back to quietly eating their meal. Once Caramon's arm was tended to, Seline stood up, and refilled mugs.

It was a long time, as Seline stood in the kitchen, that her shoulders heaved and shuddered with supressed tears. She still could not believe it - and - she -

Was that smoke?

Seline stood bolt upright and turned her head to the window. She could see the red flash of the Lord's soldiers' tunics and immediately rushed out into the room, grabbing her brother by the hand. "Into the back!" she whispered violently, and shoved them into the back room, dark, shutting and locking the door behind them. She knew that that room was going to be good for something besides storing ale.

Seline walked back over to the window, and gasped at what she saw. One of the houses, the house of a small family, was ablaze, and the soldiers were jumping around, laughing and pointing. The family huddled nearby, the father being held back by two soldiers from rushing back into the ruins of their little cottage home. Seline, a grim line set on her face, walked out of the bar, while the rest of the poeple huddled scared in their homes.

"What in the name of the gods do you think you are doing?!" she screamed, yanking one of the men's hands off of the little girl - Portia her name was. One of the soldiers grabbed her shoulder and shoved her back, and she yanked her knife out of her belt, with a warning glance.

"Thems is guilty of breakin' the law, elf." the soldier snarled at her, and grabbed Portia again. Seline, her stare defiant, slashed the soldier's hand and took the girl's hand back from him.

"Run," she mumbled to the little girl and watched as Portia ran toward the bar. Her mother and older brother followed, and with a swift kick, Seline freed the father as well. It was not but a few moments before the soldiers were on Seline. She slashed her knife back and forth, but as more and more of the soldiers were on her, she felt her chances getting worse. Too bad she had trapped her friends in the closet.

But she felt a whisper of static air swish by her, and watched as each of the men crumped onto the floor. As she spun on her heel, she saw Raistlin standing there, one arm out, the other held up to his mouth as he let out a series of small coughs. He gave her a chilling smile, and turned around to walk back to the bar without a word.

When Seline walked back into the Snake's Eye behind Raistlin, still trying to comprehend how all of that had just happened, she found Tanis bent down in front of Portia's mother, as she wept, and Portia's father standing by the fire with Caramon. She walked in and Portia rushed up to her and wrapped her arms around Seline's legs. "Oh Seline!" she cried, "Thank you! Thank you for saving us! But I fear now our house is to ruin."

"The villagers will get the blaze out." Seline reassured the small child, and knelt down in front of her, before reaching into her pocket. "While you're waiting for your house to fix, though," she said with a smile, "Why do you not stay in my home?" Seline brought out a key and handed it to the small child, setting the gold into her hand.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Seline said, standing up and meeting Raistlin's eyes. "I believe I am leaving."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

It was hot outside. The sun beat onto the back of Seline's bare neck, but she said nothing as they walked down the lane. "I hate leaving the people there in such need." Sturm said to her, breaking the silence as they walked in the back. Seline said nothing as she watched those ahead of her. Flint and Tas right in front of them, Raistlin and Caramon next, and in the very front walked Tanis and Kitiara.

Tanis and Kitiara. Seline sensed something off about the coupling that had always seemed so obvious, but she said nothing, and set her mind to replying to Sturm as they walked just off the road, where Flint was plopping himself onto the ground to rest. "The people of that village have kept themselves alive for many generations," she said, putting her hand on his arm. She felt his hair stand up. "There's nothing you could do for them that would not require you to stay there and defend them for the rest of your life."

"I would do it."

"I know you would." Seline replied, and turned to look at him. She felt a familiar presence behind her back and turned, looking at Tanis standing there.

"May I speak with you?" he asked, and Seline nodded, patting Sturm's arm before walking off with her brother.

"I wanted to tell you how sorry I am it has been so long." Tanis said, "But after that curse, I could not bear leading the wizard back to you, until we were sure he was dead. And at this point no one could deny coming back for you a day long."

"I thought you were all dead." Seline said, meeting his eyes and narrowing her own. "I thought you had all died. I hated you for leaving."

"You told us to-"

"Yes, I did!" Seline snapped, pushing Tanis heavily away from her, "I did tell you to leave! But I am bitter, Tanis. I am bitter that you

actually did leave. I am bitter that you actually did it. I am bitter that you left me behind in this dump of a city, and only decided to come

back at your leisure after nearly a year!"

"Sh!" Sturm held up his hand and the entire company halted their conversation. "Sh!"

"What is it?"

Tasslehoff was running back down the trail toward them. He lifted his arm and waved three times. Tanis and Seline exchanged worried glances, before rushing off into the edge of the forest with the rest of the company. They all sat wearily against the trees at the edge of the trail, and waited for Tasslehoff to catch his breath.

"Soldiers," he gasped, "Lots of them. It was like an army. Tanis! I'm afraid they're coming to find us!"

"How could they possibly know where we are?" Sturm asked, leaning against a tree and frowning doubtfully toward the kender. "How could they chose this road over the others. It can't be a coincidence." Seline cursed under her breath at the trouble her brother had gotten them into, but secretly she enjoyed the challenge.

"Perhaps they already know," Seline offered from the low branch of the tree she was perched in. Raistlin stood beneath her and to the right, one hand on her knee. Seline did not remove it, nor did she acknowledge it besides a thought. "Maybe we've had someone following us?" she doubted it, though. Between her own and Tanis's elven capabilities, and the experience of the rest, it was highly unlikely that anyone would come upon them like that. No one answered her.

"Either way," Raistlin said, using his free hand to flip through his spellbook. "Are we going to continue standing here debating how they  
found us, or are we going to do something about it?"

Everyone chuckled, and went to stand on the side of the road, all together, hands on their weapons. They would find out soon enough if these  
men meant them harm.

"Just like old times, eh lass?" Flint asked Seline, looking up at her.

Seline chuckled, "Just like old times."

She just hoped that this time they were not to die.


End file.
